MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Bird Island Gannets at Sunrise

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Gannet Flare
Gannet Flare

Bird Island is situated in Algoa Bay, South Africa and home to over 300 000 birds with three main groupings: Gannets, Penguins and Roseate Terns.

In this time lapse video you see a small portion of the over 98 000 breeding pairs of Gannets taking off at sunrise with the Bird Island Lighthouse in the background. The Gannets take off, fish and return to an area offshore and North East of Bird Island known as the “Duck Pond”. Once the birds have rested/cleaned up they take off once again and rejoin their mates on the land. As they come in to land they make a distinctive sound to warn those in their flight path that they “come in peace” to avoid being pecked. They brake into the wind using their tail feathers, fold their wings up and drop into their nesting sites.

To stand in the path of these birds as they take off to feed, never clashing in the air and neatly avoiding the cameraman as they fly closer for a look is a soul cleansing once in a lifetime experience.

I was a guest of SANPARKS who graciously allowed me to overnight on the Island.

Creator: mypedotcoza
Posted to MyPE by: Alan Straton

Gannets fly off to feed at sunrise.
Bird Island Gannets fly off to feed at sunrise.
Gannet Flying passed the Bird Island Lighthouse
Gannet Flying passed the Bird Island Lighthouse

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